It is an absolute joy to serve a delicious meal to your loved ones, but is there anything better than incorporating fresh seasonal ingredients from the garden or market into every aspect of the meal?
I served Lemon Herb Spiced Salmon with Roasted Carrots and and Roasted Artichokes with Garlic Herb Butter Sauce to my parents on Mother’s Day and BONUS, we ate off of the leftovers for a few days as well. I hope this meal brings you as much joy and delicious flavor as it did for us.
Serves 4-6 [with the potential for some leftovers]
Roasted Carrots
Who doesn’t love a basic roasted carrot? A little evoo, a sprinkle of salt and cooked with love. What more could you ask for?
INGREDIENTS
– 1 pound of carrots, trim off tops, wash and quarter lengthwise (save tops by washing in room temp water and the set out to try for garnish later)
– 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
– Finishing salt, for taste
DIRECTIONS
Place a medium-sized baking sheet pan on the middle rack of the oven and preheat to 400° F
In a large bowl, add quartered carrots and drizzle olive oil on top. Toss carrots until coated with olive oil.
After the oven is preheated, carefully pour the carrots onto the heated baking sheet and spread them out so they are spaced evenly.
Cook at 400°F for 20 minutes. Using wooden spoon or spatula, rotate the carrots on the pan and cook for another 20 minutes or until fork tender.
Once the carrots are cooked, sprinkle them with some finishing salt for flavor.
Roasted Artichokes with Garlic Herb Butter
Inspired by this spring vegetable, I wanted to try a little something new. I grew up eating stuffed artichokes and boy oh boy are they delicious. But this time I wanted a gluten-free and fresh way of preparing artichokes for Mother’s Day.
Roasted Artichokes
INGREDIENTS
– 2 to 4 medium sized artichokes, rinsed & dried, topped, tips of sharp leaves trimmed (I use kitchen scissors to do this.) and artichokes quartered
– 6 to 10 cloves of garlic, minced
– 1 cup of fresh herbs, coarsely chopped (I used Sage, Thyme, Oregano and Flat Leaf Parsley from our garden)
– 1/2 tablespoon sea salt
– Juice and zest of 1 lemon
– 1 lemon quartered and sliced (8 quarter slices for 2 artichokes, 16 quarter slices for 4 artichokes)
– 1 stick butter, melted (I love Vital Farms butter and eggs too!)
– Sea salt and pepper, for taste
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400° F.
Add minced garlic, chopped herbs, 1/2 Tablespoon of sea salt and lemon zest into a small bow and stir until throughly combined.
Line a large baking sheet pan with parchment paper. Place quartered artichokes on baking sheet with a side down. Stuff the garlic herb mix between leaves of artichokes, dividing the mix evenly between each quartered artichoke. Add a quartered sliced of lemon under the cut side of the artichoke that is resting on the pan. Drizzle the melted butter over the top of the of the stuffed artichokes, making certain that each quarter gets a bit of butter on it. Cover the baking sheet with aluminum foil creating a seal so your artichokes can steam nicely.
Place the baking sheet on the middle rack of your oven and cook for 40 – 45 minutes or until inner leaves are tender.
Once cooked, place artichoke in a bowl and serve with Garlic Herb Butter sauce for dipping (recipe below).
Garlic Herb Butter Sauce
INGREDIENTS
– 1 to 1 1/2 sticks of butter, melted
– 4 to 6 cloves of garlic, minced
– 1/2 cup of fresh herbs, finely chopped (I used the same combination of herbs that I did above in the Roasted Artichoke recipe.)
– Juice and zest of 1 lemon
– Salt and pepper, for taste
DIRECTIONS
Grab 4 – 6 dipping bowls or ramekins (dependent upon how many guests you will be serving)
Divide melted butter, minced garlic, lemon zest and chopped herbs evenly between the dipping bowls. Add a bit of lemon juice to each dipping bowl and sprinkle salt and pepper for added flavor. With a spoon, stir ingredient together and serve.
Lemon Herb Spiced Salmon (inspired by @joyfulhealthyeats )
INGREDIENTS
– 2 lemons, sliced into rounds
– 1 whole side of salmon, approximately 4 pounds
– 1 to 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
– 1 tablespoon of paprika
– 1/2 tablespoon of garlic powder
– 1/2 tablespoon of onion powder
– Juice and zest of 1 lemon
– 2 to 3 tablespoons of fresh herbs, coarsely chopped (I used Sage, Thyme, Oregano, Mint and Flat Leaf Parsley from our garden.)
– Sea salt and pepper, to taste
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400° F.
Line a large baking sheet pan with parchment paper and place lemon slices flat, in rows in center of the baking pan, creating a bed of lemons for the salmon to rest on. I put about 1/4″ – 1/2″ of space between each lemon slice. If you have lemon slices leftover, you can use as a garnish after the salmon is cooked.
Pat salmon dry and place it on top of bed of lemons, skin side down. Brush the salmon with a light coating of olive oil then evenly sprinkle paprika, onion and garlic powder over the entire piece of salmon. Drizzle lemon juice on the salmon, top with fresh chopped herbs and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.
Place in oven on the middle rack and cook for approximately 20 minutes. At the end of 20 minutes, turn our oven to broil for 2 minutes. ***NOTE: IT IS CRUCIAL THAT YOU DO NOT WALK AWAY FROM THE OVEN. SET A TIMER. DO ANYTHING YOU CAN TO KEEP A WATCHFUL EYE ON THE SALMON AS YOU DO NOT WANT TO OVER COOK IT. ESPECIALLY AFTER YOU HAVE GOTTEN THIS FAR!!!***
Take the salmon out of the oven and let rest for approximately 10 minutes. While the salmon is resting you can carefully dress the baking sheet with the roasted carrots from above and add some additional herbs and lemon for garnish.
Serve the same straight from the baking sheet. It will provide a fun way to present the salmon to your guests as well as easy clean up!
Supplies
Below is a list of supplies I used to prepare this meal:
Medium-sized baking sheet
Medium-sized bowl
Chef’s knife
Large cutting board
Wooden spoon or silicone spatula
Fork
Kitchen scissors
2 large baking sheets
Parchment paper
Microplane or zester
Small bowls
Spoon
4-6 microwave-safe dipping bowls or ramekins
Paper towels
Basting brush
Some additional tips
I thought it might be helpful to know how I prepared this meal and served it all up at once.
- I pre-cooked the artichokes but could have put them in at the same time as I started roasting the carrots. After they were cooked, I put them all in one bowl and covered with foil to keep warm.
- I also pre-made the Garlic Herb Butter dipping sauce and just threw the dipping bowls in to the microwave for between 30 second and a minute to melt again. Take a spoon and stir up all the yummy goodness in each bowl before putting back on the table. Also, I put saucers under the dipping bowls to help minimize drips on the table.
- After roasting the carrots for 20 minutes and turning them a bit, I added the salmon to the oven and it worked out perfectly! I took the carrots out at the total 40 minute cook time, before broiling the salmon. To do this I put the salmon on the rack that was just one rung down from the middle setting in the oven and put the rack for the carrots one rung up from the middle. I also turned the pan that the carrots were cooking on vertically and pulled as far right or left as I could once I added the salmon pan to the oven. This way I could keep the salmon pan horizontal allowing as much direct heat as possible to the salmon.
I hope these tips were helpful.
Thank you for checking out these recipes! I would love to hear about your experiences with preparing this meal. Comment below with how it went and let me know if you have any questions.
Until our next adventure,
